Google Launches Gmail Over SMS In Emerging Markets (opens in new tab)

Link to actual release: http://google-africa.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/send-and-receive...

Apparently you can text "MORE" to see more of an email. So are users limited to 140-character chunks, or will Google expand this into MMS?

For that matter, how widespread is MMS vs SMS in emerging markets?

I read this news with an incredible sense of synchronicity. Two hours ago I was eating a Subway sub and thinking how handy it would be to receive emails in my old Nokia phone via SMS. I do have an Android phone, but I don't take it in my bike rides. This SMS feature would be very welcome.

Edit: typo on 'synchronicity'

One of the benefits mentioned is essentially having a record/backup of sms messages. I've always felt bad about loosing all my text messages when I get a new phone or run out of space.

With my past few phones I've used this app to save all my sms messages to my Gmail account: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zegoggles....

Very interesting. This is a brilliant idea but I'm honestly surprised something like this wasn't done by RIM(Blackberry). This is a major market for Blackberry and they are still releasing new 2G phones(e.g. 9220 just released).

And today, I was just thinking about ditching my data plan on my iPhone (or more exactly, getting a MVNO SIM and turning off 3G). And of course, that made me wonder if there was an app for accessing dial-up.

Isn't it a security hole? Normally, you work with Gmail using https, and sms messages are plain text which could be read and/or collected by mobile operators.

Now we can look forward to 419 scams in text-speak :/